Work begins on Longview rehab hospital, 120 jobs to be created

Ground has been broken and concrete poured, for a needed medical facility that will bring jobs and more business to East Texas.

A specialized physical therapy hospital is under construction in Longview off east Loop 281.

"We started about a year an a half ago. Had some people from the Dallas area wanting to build a new hospital in town," said real estate developer Mark Coleman.Everest Rehab will be a 36-bed hospital, bringing 120 jobs with an $8-million dollar payroll to Longview.

"What we've seen over the last 30 years is really going from the recovery phase to active recovery phase where patients are going home a lot faster and we saw a good location in Longview," said Everest Rehabilitation hospitals LLC CEO Jay Quintana.

Similar facilities are being built by Everest in Oklahoma , Arkansas and Temple Texas, with the intent of doing what they do best. Physical rehabilitation.

"It's not going to just impact right where they're hospital is, but actually opening up utilities and future development of that area," said city of Longview public information officer Shawn Hara."What we saw in Longview was patients were going out of the area for inpatient rehab, and the need to have a facility in their area," Quintana says.

The 40-thousand-square-foot project was approved by Longview city council members in February of last year.

"The average is $50,000 a year in salaries for the employees that will be working here," Coleman says.Projection is for the $23 million project to be completed in mid-December of this year.

Developers say there are an additional 45 acres adjacent to the site, available for future development expected to occur to help support the hospital.

A theology educator for a Southern Baptist seminary has found himself the center of controversy. We spoke to pastors in East Texas to get their reactions to Paige Patterson prematurely retiring from President of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

A theology educator for a Southern Baptist seminary has found himself the center of controversy. We spoke to pastors in East Texas to get their reactions to Paige Patterson prematurely retiring from President of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.